Videos | The Institute for Justicehttp://ij.org/freedomflix/category/177
Tue, 03 Mar 2015 22:37:00 +0000Joomla! - Open Source Content Managementen-uswebmail@ij.org (The Institute for Justice)The Forfeiture Machine Turns Cops into Robbershttp://ij.org/freedomflix/video/y6mt-ylo5yg/177
http://ij.org/freedomflix/video/y6mt-ylo5yg/177The most terrifying place in Philadelphia is Courtroom 478 in City Hall. This is where property owners enter Philadelphia’s Civil Forfeiture Machine. Civil forfeiture is a little-known legal device that allows law enforcement officials to take your property, sell it and pocket the proceeds—even if you have done nothing wrong.

Philadelphia’s automated, machine-like forfeiture scheme is unprecedented in size. From 2002 to 2012, Philadelphia took in over $64 million in forfeiture funds—or almost $6 million per year. In 2011 alone, the city’s prosecutors filed 6,560 forfeiture petitions to take cash, cars, homes and other property. The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office used over $25 million of that $64 million to pay salaries, including the salaries of the very prosecutors who brought the forfeiture actions. This is almost twice as much as what all other Pennsylvania counties spent on salaries combined.

This is how the city’s forfeiture machine works: Property owners who have their cash, cars or homes seized must go to Courtroom 478. But Courtroom 478 isn’t a courtroom at all: there is no judge or jury, just a scheduler and the prosecutors who run the show. Owners who ask for a lawyer are frequently told their case isn’t complicated and a lawyer isn’t necessary, but are then given a stack of complicated legal documents to fill out under oath. Time and time again, property owners must return to Courtroom 478—up to ten or more times in some cases. If they miss a single appearance, they can lose their property forever.

Philadelphia’s forfeiture machine stacks the deck against property owners and leads city officials to police for profit instead of justice. To end these unconscionable and unconstitutional practices, the Institute for Justice and a group of property owners have brought a major, class-action lawsuit in federal court. The lawsuit will take the profit incentive out of civil forfeiture and protect innocent people who are caught in an upside-down legal process that treats them like cash machines while violating their constitutional rights.

In one of the most contentious civil forfeiture fights in the nation, Magistrate Judge Judith G. Dein of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts concluded, based on a week-long bench trial in November 2012, that the motel was not subject to forfeiture under federal law and that its owners were wholly innocent of any wrongdoing.

The Institute for Justice and local counsel Schlossberg, LLC, brought the case to trial to expose the injustices of civil forfeiture laws that allow law enforcement agencies to pad their budgets by taking property from innocent owners who have never been convicted or even charged with a crime.

"This is a complete victory for the Caswell family and for the protection of private property rights," said Scott Bullock, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice. "The Caswells will keep their motel, and private property rights are preserved."

The government had sought to take the Motel Caswell from the Caswell family under the theory that the motel allegedly facilitated drug crimes. But the court found that Mr. Caswell "did not know the guests involved in the drug crimes, did not know of their anticipated criminal behavior at the time they registered as guests, and did not know of the drug crimes while they were occurring."

"This outrageous forfeiture action should never have been filed in the first place," said Larry Salzman, an IJ attorney. "What the government did amounted to little more than a grab for what they saw as quick cash under the guise of civil forfeiture."Caswell said, "I couldn't have fought this fight without the help of the Institute for Justice. It is hard to believe anything like this goes on in our country, but the government goes after people they think can't afford to fight. But with IJ's help, we put up a heck of a fight and have won. The public needs to stand up against these abuses of power."

]]>VideosWed, 05 Dec 2001 06:00:00 +0000Out of control Feds raid family grocery store’s checking account over innocent bank depositshttp://ij.org/freedomflix/video/rwn-ufctxps/177
http://ij.org/freedomflix/video/rwn-ufctxps/177The government should not be able to use civil forfeiture to take money from people who have done nothing wrong. And yet, that is exactly what is happening to Terry Dehko, the hardworking owner of Schott’s Supermarket, a small grocery store in Fraser, Michigan. He has run the store for more than 30 years with his daughter, Sandy Thomas.

Earlier this year, without warning, the federal government seized the store’s entire bank account—more than $35,000—and refuses to give it back. The government falsely accused Terry and Sandy of breaking anti-money-laundering laws by making frequent bank deposits of their store’s cash receipts. But they did nothing illegal and have been charged with no crime. In July, the government filed a lawsuit to keep the money, not against Terry and Sandy but against the cash itself, which is why the case has the bizarre title of United States v. $35,651.11.

Federal civil forfeiture law features an appalling lack of due process: there is no way to quickly get a ruling from a neutral decisionmaker about the validity of the government’s seizure, and therefore Terry and Sandy must do battle in federal court against the U.S. Department of Justice to prove themselves innocent and get their money back. Shockingly, the money taken by the government will be used to fund the budgets of the very federal agencies that seized the money in the first place.

On September 25, 2013, Terry and Sandy teamed up with the Institute for Justice to fight back. A victory for Terry and Sandy will vindicate not just their right to be free from abusive forfeiture tactics, but the right of every American not to have their property taken from them by government when they have done nothing wrong.

]]>VideosWed, 05 Dec 2001 06:00:00 +0000Ending Forfeiture Abuse: How States Can Be Tough on Crime and Respect Property Rights http://ij.org/freedomflix/video/nxulkvg6hxs/177
http://ij.org/freedomflix/video/nxulkvg6hxs/177Civil asset forfeiture is one of the greatest threats to private property rights in our nation today. Law enforcement can take your property without even charging you with a crime.

According to reports from the Institute for Justice, law enforcement agencies frequently fail to disclose what they seize or how they use the proceeds. Failure to report only makes this already bad problem worse.

State legislatures must enact comprehensive forfeiture reform to protect private property by (1) requiring that individuals be convicted of a crime before title to their property is transferred to the state, (2) ensuring that forfeiture proceeds do not become a slush fund for law enforcement, and (3) protecting innocent owners by shifting the burden to prosecutors to prove that a third-party did not consent or have actual knowledge about a crime before he loses his property.

Police and prosecutors should be chasing criminals, not profits, but allowing the law enforcement to keep the proceeds of forfeited property gives them a direct financial incentive to abuse their power. Fair and impartial law enforcement cannot exist as long as policing for profit is allowed.

Going to court to get your property back is no simple task. The state forces you to enter an upside down legal world where you must prove your property is innocent instead of requiring the government to prove you are guilty of a crime.

The legal process is so rigged that even an innocent owner needs a lawyer and must wait months for a hearing to get back seized property. The laws need to be changed to protect property owners who are wrongly dragged into the forfeiture process through no fault of their own.

]]>VideosWed, 05 Dec 2001 06:00:00 +0000POLICING FOR PROFIT: Feds try to take innocent elderly couples' Mom-and-Pop motelhttp://ij.org/freedomflix/video/hgh-7lozehw/177
http://ij.org/freedomflix/video/hgh-7lozehw/177Seeking to circumvent state law and cash in on the profits, the Tewksbury Police Department is working with the U.S. Department of Justice to take and sell the Caswells property because a tiny fraction of people who have stayed at the Motel Caswell during the past 20 years have been arrested for crimes. Keep in mind, the Caswells themselves have worked closely with law enforcement officials to prevent and report crime on their property. And the arrests the government complains of represent less than .05 percent of the 125,000 rooms the Caswells have rented over that period of time.]]>VideosWed, 05 Dec 2001 06:00:00 +0000If a Police Dog "Alerts," Should You Lose Your Cash, Car and Other Property?http://ij.org/freedomflix/video/mdxyqufvavc/177
http://ij.org/freedomflix/video/mdxyqufvavc/177IJ attorneys Darpana Sheth and Scott Bullock explain IJ's new amicus brief about civil forfeiture. Learn more at this link: http://www.ij.org/l-l-10-12-ij-amicus-brief-alerts-high-court-to-abuse-of-civil-forfeiture-using-drug-dogs

Read the brief here: http://www.ij.org/images/pdf_folder/amicus_briefs/fl-v-harris-amicus.pdf]]>VideosWed, 05 Dec 2001 06:00:00 +0000EPIC EMINENT DOMAIN BATTLE: Inner-City Kids, Boxing Gym Fight Back http://ij.org/freedomflix/video/8pb-tmpsjji/177
http://ij.org/freedomflix/video/8pb-tmpsjji/177A San Diego-area boxing gym that serves at-risk kids is showing what it takes to fight for what is right and to win. The Community Youth Athletic Center (CYAC) has had to endure a series of low blows by National City's local government in a case that time and again demonstrated how difficult it is for California property owners to defend themselves against tax-hungry governments and land-hungry developers bent on eminent domain for private gain.]]>VideosWed, 05 Dec 2001 06:00:00 +0000Scorched Earth: Eminent Domain Abuse in the Gardens of Mount Hollyhttp://ij.org/freedomflix/video/qmdnccsufao/177
http://ij.org/freedomflix/video/qmdnccsufao/177VideosWed, 05 Dec 2001 06:00:00 +0000